My last two weeks summed up in a Blog! Part 2 The Work week / Carb Day / The Race
(Bryan Herta Autosport Garage)
The week leading up to Carburation Day (Friday):
I was excited counting down the days. Having trouble sleeping again knowing that I was going to Carburation Day, and the race. Tuesday I had to go to Madison for work. Thursday I had to go to Lacrosse WI for work. Which is about a 3.5hr drive from Milwaukee. All I could think of on Thursday was get my s#^t together & finished and get home asap to get ready to go back to Indy! The people in our Lacrosse office are awesome! I think alot of them could see the smile on my face & anticipation. I feel bad as I talked one person's ear off about how I was excited to be going to the race with my father! She was telling me how her & her husband bet pennies on the race on the color of car that would win the race & so fourth. It amazes me on how many people I know from work that actually do watch the Indy 500 (Now we just got to get them to watch more than this one race). I was done with my work in Lacrosse by 1pm & headed home to get ready.
(The week leading up to Carburation Day was brought to you buy Paul Bunyan's! Try our hearty Lumberjack Breakfast, or our Fried Chicken or our World Famous Donuts! www.paulbunyans.com/ )
Lets come back to that 11th hr idea I had after Bryan Herta's interview. Wednesday morning I had this great idea to make a shirt that said "Two Men & a Truck Racing on it". Perfect. So Wednesday I sat in the office emailing Two Men & a Truck movers to see if I could buy one of their shirts. I explained why. Sure thing $6 later I got a shirt suited for my frame :) Now to add Racing to the shirt, that was the trick, as I needed someone to print it on the shirt asap, and try to get some prices, and have it done either Wednesday night or Thursday night and try to get home from Lacrosse in time to pick it up. Thus why it was the 11th hour idea).
Luckily I found City Screen Print & Embroidery (http://cityscreenprint.com/main_page.html) via my android phone (I love this phone) to help make my dream become reality. for $3 they would put Racing on the back of it for me. Sweet! I must have met the owner or something as when we were talking I said I really need it done by Thursday so I can take to Indianapolis with me so I can show it off to Bryan Herta and Sebastian Saavedra at the Indy 500. He talked my ear off about how his wife thought she got him tickets to the Brickyard 400 on Memorial Day. He tried to explain to her it was open wheel racing. Long story short they had a great time, and he watched bumped day & heard Herta's interview. Then he saw the shirt & laughed & said yea well take care of ya right away for him to see it. Score!! Thursday AM it was done, & I called an audible for my mother to pick it up for me. She even washed it :) . Lets move on to CARB DAY!!!
Carburation (Carb) Day!!
Full speed ahead to Indy! My dad & were laughing at the memory we had at stopping at the Flying J gas truck stop about 15miles from the race track (You ask for coffee they gave us a used ash tray! don't even ask about the birthday cake for Bubba in the breakfast buffet! LOL). Ironically we were running low on gas, and that was the nearest gas station. Well as we were getting off traffic was backed up. Apparently there was a really bad accident under the bridge by the exit where a car flipped over. Luckily we were able to get off the freeway, get gas, get some under baked chocolate chip cookies, and we were back on the freeway away from the accident.
Arrived at the speedway missed about the first 10minutes of practice. Instead of moving higher in the grandstands my dad dive bombs for the nearest row of seats he can get. I thought maybe he was really winded or something. I ask if hes alright & he shouts at me to sit down he wants to see the cars! He picks a spot right in turn 1 where it looks like the cars are coming right at you. Kanaan is the first car to go by and he starts cheering & clapping. Then as a group of cars go by he has this huge grin on his face. I look over at him & say yeah all rookies have that smile on their face when they see the Indycars here. The whole time he was just in awe, the Izod trophy girl would've walked by & he wouldn't even noticed! As practice wound down he made the comment it was nice seeing cars going the right way through turn 1 (Counter clockwise, vs clockwise).
The Indylights race was fun. Though before the start of the race (20minutes), I thought why not get a couple of tenderloin sandwiches and some Cokes as we were starving to death. Wow I think I found the slowest food stand at the track! It was like they were making everything to order, didn't have stuff premed, and after they took one persons order, they all just stood around. People were getting impatient and were just getting drinks. I missed the warm up laps of the race and ended up coming back with a bottle of water! Maybe the under estimated the crowd which I can understand but man alive it seemed like chaos. Back to the race it was great seeing Pippa Mann on the front row, though it was disappointing she got knocked out of the race (the car contact happened right in front of us). We got to see Wade Cunningham capture his third win of the freedom 100. Does anyone want to give this guy an Indy car ride? Maybe just the Indy 500? Common!! I always liked the Indy Lights races. Sometimes at the start of the race they are so balls & ovaries to the wall they go 4-5 wide and don't realize the turn is coming and BOOM! 4 cars out. The rest of the race is always back and fourth action up until the final lap at times. Especially at Chicagoland its sick how these guys race!
Witnessed the classic Indycars of old go by on the track. Tried to take pictures of the Turbine go by us in turn 1. The Turbine had to be the 2nd most coolest car on my list of favorites from the late 60s-70s (First is Mario Andretti's Brawner Hawk) The Turbine (Also known as the woooooshhhh mobile:)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_56. Could have won the Indy 500 though a 99cent piece failed with a few laps to go. As it would go buy on the straight away you wouldn't hear anything until it was at least 5 seconds past you would hear the woooshhhh sound. Heard it at Milwaukee alot of times when they would bring it and the guy who owned it would really open her up on the straights!
After seeing all the classic cars, we decided to seek shelter from the heat, and look at other old relics from the past. I took my dad to the museum to look around. I was afraid he was going to steal the Borg Warner Trophy! He stared at it for a good 5minutes graced by its presence. Its like hey dad Jacques Villenueve's winning car.. Dad: Yea that's somethin ~staring at the Borg~ . He pointed at some doors and wondered what was in that hallway. I smiled & said I cant tell you that secret dies with a select group of people :) .
We were so hungry that after the museum we stopped at the food stand right next to it. We were so hungry we would eat anything. I knew my dad hated the burgers there but I was too afraid to try anything else. Burgers had a 10minute wait. Same for Hot Dogs. I didn't want microwaved nachos, so I asked what was available. Brats. ~Sigh~ 2 please. Gave my dad his brat & he takes a bite & tells me that's the worse Hot Dog he ever had in his life!! I looked at him & started chuckling. I said dad that's a brat. Then I hear him shout holy effing mystery meat!! That's it Ive had it with eating the food here! That ain't no codpickin brat. LOL.
We received a phone call from the dog sitter (My mom) that my dog Zoe has possibly consumed a rabbit. She was coughing up alot of fur and some blood. We recommended her run the dog to ER to see if everything was alright. To be safe we headed home. She was fine, possibly just a full belly as the rabbit was nowhere to be found in the yard, or in the neighbors yard (though it could have died in the parkway). So if you've met Zoe you know this was her 6th rabbit. She has caught several other critters in her life including some birds in mid air. Trust me behind that innocent look is a killer!! Race Day:
There are only 3 times out of the year I am willing to get out of bed ass early. 1. Day after Thanksgiving Shopping (Yes Im one of those nuts), 2. For the Indycar race(s) at the Milwaukee Mile (Hey this year Im OK with no race there. Its going to rain all weekend of June 4-6th) 3. To getup to watch F1, The Indy500 & the Coca Cola 600 on Memorial Day (Which during the Nascab race I usually nap from all the snacks I had during the 500). I was so pumped this year I turned down an offer for a young lady to get me drunk & take advantage of me. I begged with her there are 364 other days in the year I am all yours but not today. My heart belongs to IMS today. Thus I got up at 1am to leave for IMS at 2:00am. Flying J stop again, except for Gas only, & a stop in Illinois for me to take over driving duties from my dad. Though I think I scared him going 85-90mph in Indiana :)
Arrived at the track just a little after 8am. I sent a text my friends to get their butts outta bed its raceday! Though I forgot that I was in Eastern time when I sent that so I got some angry texts back. So I ate a ham sandwich & took a small nap. The intoxicating aroma of shrimp, scallops, & burgers filled our parking lot in 3G. I was sitting amongst tailgating experts from all over the country. Oh why didn't I bring my Milwaukee famous beer brats. I would have shown them who knows how to tailgate the best! Trust me I would have forgotten anything (IE: Buns, tongs, charcoal, napkins, though I always remembered the grill LOL). This is the big leagues either you do it right or don't do it at all!
About 9:30ish I headed to my seat. I couldn't believe where I was sitting. I was at the end of the South Chute between turns 1,2. Pretty much around where most of the wrecks were happening.
(The view! Note my phone died before the start of the race so I couldn't take a pic with people actually in the stands)
I grew impatient for the race to start, I started to go exploring. I headed over to the Pagoda Plaza bummed around there to see where I could & could not go without getting kicked out of the track :) . I decided to take the stars up to overlook the garage area. I knew that Bryan Herta Autosports garages were in the first row so I wore my shirt again & was determined to be noticed by him & his driver Sebastian. Mission accomplished. Alot of the team members and Bryan laughed telling me it was awesome. Sebastian gave me some devil horns as he drove away on his motor cart to get ready for the race. Before the team saw it I got around 12 compliments from people all over the track about it. Best $9 ever spent for one of my wacky ideas.
(Left: Sebastian Saavedra Yea he was laughing at me probably. Right: The car making its way to the grid.)
The pre race ceremonies were awesome. Though I wish the audio would have stayed off when Jewel was singing the National Anthem. I think I should've brought ear plugs for that part. Did anyone else at the race notice the camera guy seemed to be stuck on her chest for more than the complimentary 2second rule? Maybe it was just me. The best moment was when Jim Nabors appeared on the video board & I cheered as loud as I could! I finally got to sing Back Home again in Indiana with Gomer Pile before they put up a statue of him and play a recording! It was the most emotional part of the experience as I had some tears coming down my face while singing. Almost everyone in the section only knew the first 5 words to the song. I knew the whole thing & sang it with proud like a native Hoosier! The balloons soared into the sky like several majestic candy wrappers caught in an updraft! Mary Hullman George gave the command to start engines & I still had some tears as this was the greatest moment of my life. TV does none of the pre race ceremonies any justice! You have to be there to witness it!
Lets take a moment to reflect on the last pork tenderloin sandwich I was going to have at the Speedway this year. I let my dad have a few bights & his eyes lit up again. He made the comment he knows where they spend the most money on food at the track. LOL Everything else can be 2nd or 3rd grade meat LOL.
(TASTY!)If you saw 34 cars on the grid your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. ABC didn't bother to tell you that car labeled IZOD, was to start the parade laps in front of the field, and then when the field would take the green flag, they would be right behind all 33 starters, then duck into the pits asap (Unless Michael Andretti had his way, he would've kept going). Its called the IZOD fastest seat in sports. Mark Wahlberg was the first to try it out. It will be featured at every race from here on out & one lucky fan at each race will be picked to experience the ride!
The start of the race was incredible. 33 cars whizzing by over 200 mph, Tony Kanaan grabbing 8 spots in half a lap. Oh yea that Jack Nicholson who waved the green flag to start the race, & a couple of restarts after that. I think they had to chase him out of the flag stand. Jack: YOU WANT THE FLAG? YOU CANT HANDLE THE FLAG!!
Lets not get too into detail with the race as 200 laps could result in like 50 more pages of blogging :) If you saw it on TV I apologize as ABC's coverage of the race was pitiful to say the least. Being their live provided better coverage. They missed alot of battles, passes, replay opportunities of cars tagging the wall. Vs coverage of Indycar races is alot better! There was a race within the race that wasn't covered too well. Especially some feel good names at the front of the pack like Ed Carpenter, Graham Rahal, Tomas Sheckter in the first half, 2nd half there wasn't much talk of Dan Wheldon and how he got there. They kept focusing on the Ganassi & Penske cars and Danica.
That reminds me time for another Danica rant! So I took my scanner as usual and had it locked on 3 drivers. Kanaan, Graham Rahlal & Danica. Out of those 3 Danica's was the most entertaining of repeated whining, complaining, & confusion with the car. I heard repeated complaints from Danica that people were blocking her! The team always calmy responded well look into it. Though you wonder if they really did :) . Every time she came by someone was in her way: Tony Kanaan, Bruno, Ana, car 55 (Um mm Danica there was no car 55 now your just over exaggerating LOL), and Alex Lloyd (Which he wasn't just blocking her, he was effing blocking her all the effing time & she was going to kill him). I bet one time Lloyd threw a block on her just to show her what a legitimate block really is. Her explanation of the car to her crew under yellow was very entertaining. When I left my car goes...... Well..... Never mind I guess its OK.... Being with that team for so many years, you think you would have learned a few things with the car, how it handles, & how to set it up (Props to TK for setting up all 5 of the teams cars for the month). End Danica rants for this blog :)
The last 20 laps of the race didn't require any Hollywood scripts or anything. Drivers were trying to conserve fuel as best as they could to win the race. Hey theres TK in 2nd could he be the first driver to win from the 33rd starting spot.... Eh no he is going into the pits oh well. Hey Helio is going to get win #4, nope there he goes into the pits. Drat. I honestly think Dario did not have enough fuel to make it to the end. If the last lap crash would not have happened I think Wheldon would have gotten him in turn 3. Speaking of Wrecks my God that wreck with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway was scary looking (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZhEVyXSZH8). That was just as bad as the Ryan Briscoe wreck I saw in 2005 at Chicagoland (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgLVi6vrT20). Though this one was near the fans, and a couple of fans sustained minor injuries. Hey ABC it would have been nice to point out the flying tire that went through the fence that bounced off the concrete pillar! Or a shot of the damaged fence. Additional word on Mike Conway. We all didn't need to see Ashley Judd run down pit lane! Im glad my recording stopped after the Dario interview.
After the race ended, we beat traffic out of the track & on our way back to Milwaukee. Sun burnt, tired & with big smiles on our faces! Monday was a day of sleeping in relaxing, staying cool, & watching the race over again.
HOT HOT HOT!
I wanted to a topic about this, as it was historical. Temperature for the race 96 degrees, the hottest Indy 500 on record!! It was the 2nd hottest race I have been to (Milwaukee Mile Indycar Race 2006 99 degrees). We brought a mini cooler into the track with 5 bottles of water. Those were gone by lap 50! I did everything in my power to stay hydrated, though the speedway was running out of cold beverages fast!! Halfway through the race in our section the food stand shut down, as they had no soda or water left! The lemonade stand was told to cut back on ice usage as there was no ice left. During the race I saw an abundance of ambulances entering & exiting the speedway, transporting fans to local area hospitals to be treated for heat exhaustion (Alcohol does not keep you hydrated, no matter how much water is in your beer!). Over 1500 people were treated for heat related symptoms at the track. 34 cases were taken to the hospital, plus 1 person involved in a golf cart accident.
With 250,000 + fans in attendance it was like a war zone. Especially underneath our bleachers with people trying to escape the heat and cool down any way they can. People were being carted off to the infield care center by the masses.
Thank Yous in Order
Thanks to everyone who made these past to weeks memorable and enjoyable. It was definitely a great time. I cant wait for next year. Though I think Im going back to plan A. Which is stay in Indianapolis from Fast Friday - Race Day. I encourage alot of you to do the same & enjoy some of the greatest racing you will ever see. IF your new to the sport, you can learn alot during this time, & meet alot of wonderful people in the process.
Thanks to the person who donated the tickets to the Channel 10 Auction. I had a great time & you missed a good race!!
Finally the people who read each blog I wrote for the month of May. Good job, but there is no reward but my thanks and comments are appreciated!
Apologies that are in Order
I feel a few apologies are in order as I feel bad about somethings partially out of my control, or how I might have been perceived as.
1. Roy Hobbson. My apologies to you. It was nice meeting you and I am sorry I was fairly quiet on pole day. Due to the heat and lack of sleep it was a terrible mix for me. After I seek ed shelter in the car for an hour in the A/C and had alot of fluids I was I was a fully recharged talkative Don again :) . I encourage everyone to read Roy's blog as it is funny as all Hell & creation http://silentpagoda.com/
2. I apologize to the planners of the May Indy Tweet up @happyfish103 and @the_race_gIRL for saying I would attend some of the events & not show to any of them. With my pet emergency & with a change in plans of my dad going to the race instead of my friend alot of things I wanted to do fell through for that weekend. Instead I took the time to show my dad alot of the things he has missed at around IMS since he went 4 years ago (Things around town, the IMS Museum, etc).
I encourage all of you who are Interested in Twitter or have a Twitter account to follow the 2 best Tweet up planners in the business! There is Winter Indy Tweet up in the works I hear so I encourage all of you to keep your eyes & ears peeled for that. I went to the Inaugural event & had a blast! Find out more: http://tweetvite.com/event/WinterIndyTweetup
3. All the people that attended the May Indy Tweetup. I was looking forward to saying hi to alot of you again , and meeting some new faces.
That's it. You made it to the end! I thank you for reading to the END!. Sorry there is no prize. But I would like comments, suggestions & feedback! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I typed it. Though Im sure I forgot alot of things but you can always talk to me about it :)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment, whether it was good, bad or informative.